Environment Canada raids CN offices

Looking for evidence about Cheakamus derailment, investigator says

Environment Canada’s lead investigator is not saying much about
last week’s raid on three CN offices with officers looking for evidence in
relation to the August, 2005 derailment and spill in the Cheakamus Canyon.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has still
not released its report into the cause of the accident that saw a tanker car
split and discharge 41,000 litres of caustic soda into the river after a
nine-car derailment about 20 kilometres north of Squamish.

The spill killed over 500,000 fish — “every free-swimming fish
occupying the Cheakamus River,” according to a provincial report. The disaster
caused a rift between environmental groups and provincial Ministry of
Environment officials about how best to restore stocks.

Last Thursday B.C. Conservation and Environment Canada
officials, as part of their own investigation into the derailment’s
consequences, conducted an unannounced search of CN offices in Surrey, Prince
George and Edmonton, according to John Dike, Environment Canada’s manager of
investigations. Dike confirmed provincial and federal officers executed
warrants to search the offices looking for evidence in relation to the 2005
spill but wouldn’t say much more.

Dike couldn’t explain why it was necessary to conduct an
unannounced raid on the offices 20 months after the accident but did say
searches like last week’s are quite common. He said in his 10 years with
Environment Canada he has known of dozens of similar investigations.

“Here in Environment Canada we have a division of enforcement
officers made up of inspectors and investigators and intelligence officers and
this is what we do,” Dike said. “You have an allegation of a violation, you
conduct an investigation, you use the tools that are available to you and you
hope to come to a conclusion.”

CN spokesman Jim Feeny said the corporation co-operated with
the search and has done so consistently with various investigating agencies
since the derailment occurred.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s Minister of Environment, Barry Penner, said
last month he had personally complained to the Transportation Safety Board
about the length of time it was taking to release its report on the cause of
the derailment.

The much-anticipated report has been delayed several times and
the chief investigator into the incident now anticipates it will be released
next month. That would be just three months before a two-year statute of
limitations against legal suits related to the spill comes into force.